TRAVEL TO CINCINNATI IN 1853
EDITED BY WILLIAM D. HOYT, JR.
Writers have described the hardships of
travel in the middle
of the nineteenth century, when
railroads were in their infancy,
but few accounts are as expressive or as
vivid as that penned by
the Honorable Peter Vivian Daniel,
Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States,
while on his way to the
Mississippi Valley to hold judicial
sessions in his circuit. A
letter written to his daughter from the
river boat Fall's City at
the Cincinnati wharf, April 7, 1853,1
leaves no doubt as to
Daniel's opinion of the service rendered
by the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad. He branded the operations
as "premature and
out of order," and said the effect
on the traveler was confusion,
delay, annoyance and risk. The number of
hours consumed en
route from Washington to Wheeling nearly
tripled the journey,
and the lack of food was particularly
exhausting. At the same
time, the Justice appreciated the
magnitude of the undertaking
and the grandeur of the precipitous
country through which the
track wound its way. In contrast, too,
he praised the accommo-
dations on the boat, which was also
owned by the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company. It is true that
he received especially
favorable treatment there, and so he may
have felt more in-
clined to view the vessel and its
accommodations with kindly
eyes.
Peter Vivian Daniel (1784-1860) was a
Virginian who had
served long and ably in the legislature
and the council of his
native state. Andrew Jackson offered him
a place in the Cabinet
as attorney-general in place of Taney,
but Daniel declined and
later, in 1836, was made judge of the
United States District
Court for Virginia. At the time of the
trip in question, he was
approaching the twelfth anniversary of
his appointment to the
1 The letter is among papers
deposited recently in the Alderman Library at the
University of Virginia by Mr. William
Randolph Grymes, of Orange.
(62)
TRAVEL TO CINCINNATI IN 1853 63
bench of the highest tribunal in the
nation. The daughter to
whom
he addressed the remarks was Miss Elizabeth Randolph
Daniel (1810-79), who directed affairs
at the family home during
her father's absences.
Steam Boat Fall's City
at the Cincinnati Wharf Apl. 7th 1853
My dear Daughter--
I write to give you some account of my
where about, and of my jour-
neying, which has been much slower than
was anticipated, and attended with
much exposure and discomfort, & with
some peril, tho' I have experienced
no injury, and my cold seems rather to
have declined than increased under
the irregularities I have encountered.
My ankle which was severely bruised
by the dog, is still stiff and sore and
somewhat swollen; an effect
continued if not produced by the necessity for wearing a boot.2
From an eagerness to levy contributions
on the public, the Baltimore
and Ohio Rail Road, or rather its
protraction from Cumberland to Wheel-
ing, has gone into operation before it
was properly prepared, and the con-
sequences have been and still are,
confusion, delay, and annoyance and
risk to travellers on that part of the
route. Every thing seems to be pre-
mature & out of order--the road is
not settled, nor the bridges tunnels &c
complete--the Engines are deficient in
power, and the conductors seem to be
a set of stupid rude blunderers. The Company promise to convey pas-
sengers from Washington or Baltimore to
Wheeling in nineteen hours, the
fact from the various causes just
adverted to has been, that the speed of
the Cars was generally slow--stoppages
frequent, and the trip of 19 hours
promised, proved to be one of two nights and a day. During all
this time the
travellers were confined to the cars
without sleep and without food, and un-
able to refresh themselves, by a change
of any portion of their clothing, or
by washing their hands and faces. It is true that at 12 oclock on the day
after leaving Washington, the train
stopped for a few minutes for the pro-
fessed purpose of letting the passengers
take break fast, but the keeper of a
wretched shanty of a tavern, said that
from the unusual hour, he was un-
prepared to furnish the company and in
consequence they had to fast. For
dinner they did not pretend to stop, and
we had no. supper as you may
suppose after four oclock in the
morning, the hour at which we reached the
Boat at Wheeling.
I am now on board a very commodious
boat, tho' she runs rather
slowly, and will hardly reach Louisville
until the day after tomorrow
(friday). Altho' the cabin of this Boat
is 400 feet in length, with the
usual disposition prevalent amongst
hosts, there was first offered to me
only a portion of a state room,
in the least desirable part of the boat, far
forward, and near the boilers. This boat
however belongs to Wheeling--
The captain when he learned my name,
came and even apologized--and
2 There are no paragraph breaks in the
manuscript. Divisions have been made
for the sake of clarity.
64
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
referring to my opinion in [the]
Wheeling Bridge case,3 said that the people
of Wheeling could never forget me; and
assigned to me an entire state room
in the Lady's Cabin--so that I am
commodiously provided, and have an
entire room to myself. The table on this
boat is equal if not superior to
any that I have seen on a Steam boat
except that they do not supply you
with wines of any kind, as they do on
the best New Orleans boats. This
boat belongs to the Baltimore & Ohio
Rail Road Company, and not to the
Cincinnati or Pittsburg boors &
therefore the managers have some notions
of decent living.
The prolongation of the Baltimore Road
incomplete as it is, is never-
theless a stupendous work. It passes
thro' the main ridges of the Blue
Ridge and Allegany Mountains, and thro'
or over all their spurrs. There
are many bridges and Tunnells, several
of the latter very long: but by far
the most striking, and to the traveller
the most fearful, specimen of this
work, is seen in the Mountain near Cheet
[Cheat] River. At one point
there is a chasm of about three hundred
feet in width, where the traveler
passes over a viaduct resting on masonry
and iron pillars three hundred
feet above the abyss below; and the road
after passing this giddy height,
runs upon a narrow track cut in the side
of the mountain, from which
should the cars be precipitated, they
would fall about five hundred feet
almost perpendicularly into the river at
the base of the mountain. These
peculiar features in the character of
this road, would, I think, disincline
the timid at least to avoid it:
certainly they require great strength in the
work and great vigilance both in the use
of it, and in keeping it in repair
to prevent the most disastrous results.
I have met on this boat with Mr Knox
Walker4 whom you may re-
member as the Secretary of Mr Polk--and
also with two citizens of Ar-
kansas, (one of whom has been the
Marshall of my Court,) with whom I
expect to travel to Little Rock--this
last circumstance will take some what
from
the irksomeness of the trip. . . .
I commend you all to a good providence
and remain your affectionate
father-- P V Daniel
3 State of Pennsylvania v.
Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Co. et al. Pennsylvania
asked for an injunction against the
company for building a bridge over the Ohio
River, located a hundred miles below
Pittsburgh, too low to allow free passage by
steamboats. The Supreme Court ordered
hearings before a commission, Justice Daniel
dissenting on the ground that the Court
did not have jurisdiction over the case.
50 U.S. (9 How.), 647-59.
The report of the commissioner was
received at the December term in 1851,
arguments were heard, and a decision was
rendered that the bridge was a nuisance
which must be abated unless the
obstruction to navigation was removed by elevation
of the bridge. Taney and Daniel
dissented, saying that the bridge was authorized by
the State of Virginia and that practical
opinion showed chimneys of boats should be
lowered. Motion for another reference
resulted in a report by an engineer recom-
mending construction of a draw in the
middle of the center span. A final decree
labelled the bridge a nuisance which
must be altered to make possible free navigation
of the river, and assessed the costs to
the defendant. Daniel dissented, pointing out
his original contention of no
jurisdiction, but agreeing on the draw and saying costs
should be borne equally by the parties
in the case. 54 U.S. (13 How.), 556-671.
[Daniel's Dissent, pp. 634-55].
4 Col. J. Knox Walker, who had been
President James K. Polk's private
secretary.